Alex W.H. Chan

Corruption across countries: Impacts from education and cultural dimensions

Abstract Corruption, which is defined by Transparency International as the misuse of entrusted power for private gain, was related to the number of people participating in tertiary education across countries. It was found that as the number of people participating in tertiary education increased, the incidence of corruption occurring in the countries decreased. Similar to other studies, the higher the GDP per capita of a country, the lower the cases of corruption. Interestingly, correlation results showed that enrolment in tertiary education had a positive result with GDP per capita. Hofstedes (1984) cultural dimensions were also found to affect the acts of corruption indirectly through enrolment in tertiary education and GDP per capita. Overall, this study has included 56 countries and results were similar in two different time periods.

Estimating the commuting cost and commuting time property price gradients

Abstract In this paper, we estimate the property price gradients in Hong Kong. We distinguish our effort from previous studies on the subject by directly measuring the economic distance, i.e., the monetary commuting cost and commuting time, instead of merely the physical distance. Our results are generally supportive of the prediction of a negative property price gradient. In one specification, the estimated capitalization of the savings of commuting cost in property prices appears to be just right. The expected negative effect of commuting time on property values, however, can only be detected among observations with larger commuting times. Nevertheless, over the range where the effect of commuting time has the expected negative sign, the values of time implied by the estimates agree well with the results reported in the transportation economics literature.

Convertible Bond Underpricing: Renegotiable Covenants, Seasoning, and Convergence

We investigate the long-standing puzzle on the underpricings of convertible bonds. We hypothesize that the observed underpricing is induced by the possibility that a convertible bond might renegotiate on some of its covenants, e.g., an imbedded put option in financial difficulties. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that the initial underpricing is larger for lower rated bonds. The underpricing worsens if the issuer experiences subsequent financial difficulties. However, conditional on no rating downgrades, our main empirical result shows that convertible bond prices do converge to their theoretical prices within two years. This seasoning period is shorter for higher rated convertible bonds.

An Intertemporal Currency Board

The paper shows that the traditional wisdom of raising interest rates to defend a currency enriches rather than punishes the speculators. Furthermore, using high interest rates as a currency defense tool often produces the opposite effect in times of crisis. A new approach is proposed of using Hong Kong dollar “put” options as an explicit commitment by the government. The put option itself acts like an intertemporal currency board in keeping the linked exchange rate over time. This costly signaling produces a separating equilibrium that distinguishes the strength of the Hong Kong dollar from the other Asian currencies that were under pressure in 1997.

How Culture Affects Female Inequality Across Countries: An Empirical Study

Many studies have commented that culture has an influence on gender inequality. However, few studies have provided data that could be used to investigate how culture actually influences female inequality. One of the aims of this study is to investigate whether Hofstedes cultural dimensions have an impact on female inequality in education in terms of female enrollment rates (at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels) in 53 different regions. Moreover, this study examines whether the enrollment rates can affect the career and income of women in the regions studied. Finally, this study also examines the relationships between Hofstedes cultural dimensions and the career opportunities and income of women. Data from the United Nations Development Programs Human Development Report 2005 was used in this study, and the results show that individualism, power distance, and masculinity could significantly and strongly predict the educational enrollment rates, career, and income of women across the 53 regions.

Increasing the competitive positions of countries through employee training: The competitiveness motive across 33 countries

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to look at the competitiveness motive and mastery motive across 33 countries. The competitiveness motive is found to be a significant but negative predictor of employee training. Design/methodology/approach - The dataset was collected from two sources. Competitiveness motive and mastery motive scores of countries were collected from Lynns study (1991); and work relation variables, such as employee training, worker motivation, and the world competitiveness score, were collected from the Findings - Although people with a strong competitiveness motive are eager to beat others, the results indicate that they may not see training as an effective method of beating others in terms of the competitiveness positions of their country. Employee training is found to be related to the work motivation of employees, and thus to the competitiveness positions of countries. Some suggestions are made for such outcomes. Practical implications - The paper highlights the importance of employee training in organizations. Originality/value - The paper demonstrates the importance of training with regard to global competitiveness positions.

THE CURRENCY BOARD IN HONG KONG: OPERATIONAL WEAKNESSES AND A PROPOSED REFINEMENT SCHEME

It is generally thought that a strong currency board system was the key to successfully defend the Hong Kong dollar during the Asian financial crisis in 1997/1998. However, the actual operation of Hong Kong’s currency board system was perhaps very different from the general public’s perception. This chapter is to explore the major operational weaknesses of Hong Kong’s currency board system during the Asian financial crisis. Not only did those weaknesses make the currency board ineffectively utilize the huge foreign reserve to stabilize the HK

Jardine Matheson Group's Delisting from the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong: Evidence on International Market Integration/Segmentation

exchange rate and interest rate, but also became a loophole in the financial system. This loophole enticed speculative attacks on the HK

Cultural Dimensions, Ethical Sensitivity, and Corporate Governance

spot market, the HK

Relationships amongst cultural dimensions, educational expenditure and class size of different nations

forward market, and the stock market in Hong Kong. After exploring the operational weaknesses, we investigate a proposed refinement scheme to improve the operational weaknesses and discuss its improvements and implications.